Zheng Silang, the military representative at the Siping Automobile Manufacturing Plant, heard that Wang Bin had come to visit. Recalling the official document he had recently finished reading, he was genuinely curious.

Wang Bin was also a graduate of the Baoding Military Academy. After Duan Qirui had forcefully intervened in its personnel affairs, the school was seen as having a strong Anhui clique flavor. Consequently, after He Rui's rise, many graduates were eager to serve in the Northeast. However, very few were actually accepted. Wang Bin was one of only three graduates from Zheng Silang's subsequent classes to be recruited.

The reason was simple: the Northeast had already established its own military academy.

Seeing his junior walk in confidently in a black uniform, Zheng Silang stood up to shake hands. After they sat down, Wang Bin immediately presented a proposal. "Big Brother Zheng, this is the personnel recruitment plan I've drafted for the Security Bureau."

Zheng Silang took it and flipped through it quickly. Since becoming a military representative at the automobile plant, he had been forced to master speed-reading. A car consisted of multiple systems, dozens of component categories, and thousands of individual parts. There simply wasn't enough time for a slow, methodical read.

Having skimmed the document, Zheng Silang noted several key points and set it on the table.

Wang Bin spoke up quickly, "Big Brother Zheng, I've come to ask for your advice."

"Cut the pleasantries; get to the point," Zheng Silang replied decisively. This was experience gained from his time at the factory. When he first arrived, Zheng Silang had spent hours, sometimes even days, going in circles with workers and technicians over minor issues.

Since then, he had refined his working method: a military representative could no longer try to encompass everything. If one insisted on tracing every problem back to its roots, they would end up mired in the fundamental laws of nature; such matters were best left to universities and specialized laboratories.

Wang Bin was equally direct. "I want to recruit Security Bureau staff from the ranks of workers and rural cadres. I wanted to hear your thoughts on this."

Zheng Silang immediately addressed his primary concern. "I noticed you defined the Security Bureau's mission as neutralizing organized disruption of government operations, industrial and agricultural production, and the order of propaganda and education. Isn't that jurisdiction a bit too broad?"

"To catch bad guys, you first have to define what a bad guy is. Using the methodology of 'seeing the essence through phenomena' that I learned at the Party School, I constructed several logical propositions. I found that if the goal is simply 'catching bad guys,' it logically slides from catching criminals to catching foreigners or anyone from outside the Northeast. That is an emergency measure, not the core function of the Security Bureau."

"That's an interesting perspective; tell me more." Zheng Silang smiled. He always appreciated a genuine intellectual insight.

"There are certainly bad actors abroad, enemies hostile to China. But I've also heard Director Morrison mention that both he and the British Minister to China, Sir John Jordan, are friends of China..."

Zheng Silang barked out a laugh. While Morrison had certainly done work for the Northeast, Zheng Silang felt the man was primarily looking out for his own interests. As for 'loving China,' one could only offer a polite smile and move on.

As the British Minister, Jordan represented British interests. For him to claim he 'loved China' was, at best, inappropriate.

Wang Bin was undeterred. "If we assume every foreigner arrives with the intent to harm China, the solution would be to expel them all. But that is the government's prerogative, not the specific scope of the Security Bureau."

Zheng Silang found Wang Bin's logic sound. Expelling foreigners was a matter of state power; the Security Bureau would merely be one department among many implementing such a policy. He continued, "So, Wang Bin, which factories are you looking to recruit from? And what are your criteria?"

"Passing a political review isn't enough; we need more reliable guarantees. That's the most difficult part right now. Big Brother Zheng, you've been at the factory for nearly a year. Do you think we should require guarantees? And if so, how should we structure them to attract the right people?"

This question gave Zheng Silang pause. The Security Bureau was ultimately responsible for apprehending 'bad guys,' which implied combat. Workers were organized and disciplined, and they performed well on a battlefield. However, coming from a family of security escorts, Zheng Silang viewed the Security Bureau's role as something closer to hand-to-hand combat—subduing an opponent with a single move. This wasn't necessarily where a worker's strengths lay.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. "Come in," Zheng Silang called out.

A skilled worker pushed the door open. "Representative Zheng, there's a meeting this afternoon. Please attend."

"Understood," Zheng Silang replied. Once the worker had left, he turned back to Wang Bin. "Wang Bin, your perspective is good, but I don't have a firm opinion on this yet. Today..."

Seeing the eager look on his junior's face, Zheng Silang's heart softened. He shared his observations on the difference between the combat capabilities of workers and rural cadres versus the specific needs of the Security Bureau.

Wang Bin shook his head. "Big Brother Zheng, you're thinking of the Police and the Defense Bureau. Our Security Bureau doesn't actually handle those tasks. I laid it out in the document: the Security Bureau's role is to identify those engaged in organized sabotage. When it comes time to take action, we call on Public Security or the Defense departments. There are tens of thousands of police in the Northeast now, and every unit has its own Defense Division or Section. They catch people in the act through patrols. That's not the same job as ours."

Hearing this, Zheng Silang felt he was beginning to grasp Wang Bin's concept of the Security Bureau. But with his meeting about to start, he stood up. "Leave the document with me, Wang Bin. Your ideas are very provocative, and because of that, I need to straighten out my own thoughts. I'll give you an answer tomorrow."

Wang Bin stood as well. "Thanks, Big Brother Zheng."

They walked out together. As they reached the building entrance and prepared to go their separate ways, Wang Bin added one last thought. "Big Brother Zheng, the Security Bureau's work will inevitably involve some violence, but fundamentally, it's a technical department. A technical department focused on analysis and research."

By now, Zheng Silang understood what Wang Bin was aiming for, even if he couldn't yet fully visualize what this Security Bureau would look like in practice.

In a way, this ignorance was a good thing. Since he didn't need to know everything, he could focus on completing his own assigned tasks.

Wang Bin visited several other units, including the Siping Institute of Technology. The heads of these organizations often had no military background, which made things easier for him; he simply asked when he could hold recruitment briefings.

After leaving Siping—currently the industrial heart of the Northeast—and returning to his office in Shenyang, a document was immediately placed on his desk. It took Wang Bin a few moments to remember Wang Donglu from the Tsinghua School.

The report informed him that Wang Donglu's family were Beiyang officers and that the young man had been inquiring about which unit the Northeast Army soldiers in black uniforms belonged to.

*The kid doesn't seem stupid enough to be looking for revenge,* Wang Bin thought, genuinely puzzled by Wang Donglu's actions.